Nov. 21, 2011
Michael Curie
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1100
michael.curie@nasa.gov
Kelly Humphries
Johnson Space Center, Houston
281-483-5111
kelly.o.humphries@nasa.gov
RELEASE: 11-394
SPACE STATION TRIO LANDS SAFELY IN KAZAKHSTAN
HOUSTON -- Three International Space Station crew members safely
returned to Earth on Monday, wrapping up nearly six months in space
during which NASA and its international partners celebrated the 11th
anniversary of continuous residence and work aboard the station.
Expedition 29 Commander Mike Fossum, Flight Engineers Satoshi Furukawa
of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency and Sergei Volkov of the
Russian Federal Space Agency landed their Soyuz spacecraft in frigid
conditions on the central steppe of Kazakhstan at 8:26 p.m. CST Nov.
21 (8:26 a.m. Kazakhstan time, Nov. 22). The trio arrived at the
station on June 9. They spent 167 days in space and 165 days on the
complex. Volkov, a two-time station crew member, now has accumulated
366 days in space.
Before leaving the station, Fossum handed over command to NASA's Dan
Burbank, who leads Expedition 30. Burbank and Flight Engineers
Anatoly Ivanishin and Anton Shkaplerov of Russia will continue
research and maintenance aboard the station.
The remaining Expedition 30 crew members, NASA astronaut Don Pettit,
European Space Agency astronaut Andre Kuipers, and cosmonaut Oleg
Kononenko, are scheduled to launch Dec. 21 from the Baikonur
Cosmodrome and dock with the station on Dec. 23.
To follow Twitter updates from Burbank, visit:
http://twitter.com/AstroCoastie
To view social media updates from Fossum's mission, visit:
http://twitter.com/astro_aggie
and
http://go.nasa.gov/oZgHtl
For more information about Expedition 29 and the space station, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/station
-end-